Nancy Lockhart is a Resilience & Call Mastery Instructor and Consultant. She is a retired Deputy Director from an Emergency Communications Center with over 30 years of experience in 9-1-1 and she cares deeply about developing leaders and front-line dispatchers to serve in an ever-changing world.

 

Nancy started her career in 1989 as a dispatcher for St. Joseph County Fire Dispatch (IN) and was promoted through the ranks to Operations Manager. She developed new standard operating procedures and guidelines for the center and managed the accreditation process in Emergency Medical Dispatching and Emergency Fire Dispatching with the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED). She also created a successful in-house training program that helped familiarize newly hired employees with center operations, emergency telecommunication technology, interpersonal communication skills, legal issues, and occupational stress. In 2001, Nancy was named “Dispatcher of the Year” in the state of Indiana for her work in 9-1-1.

 

In 2014, Nancy was hired by St. Joseph County 9-1-1 (IN), a consolidated Emergency Communications Center for the fifth largest county in Indiana, to coordinate with GIS and responding agencies to develop CAD response plans. She was promoted to Deputy Director and supervised policy development for the agency’s fire dispatchers and call-takers, Quality Improvement Unit, and training, and served as the Project Manager for the Peer Support Team prior to her retirement.

 

Nancy currently serves as a contractor for IAED and is a member of the ETC Board of Curriculum and a Board of Accreditation reviewer. In 2018, she received the IAED “Dr. Jeff Clawson Leadership Award” at the U.S. Navigator conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nancy teaches various training courses on leadership, fire and EMS dispatching, and customer service.

 

Nancy’s passion and focus is on the “human infrastructure” of 9-1-1, with a heart to assist those who serve in this incredible profession. Through her national conference presentations and advocacy efforts, she is recognized as an industry leader in advancing the well-being of 9-1-1 professionals. Nancy uses her expertise to provide front-line dispatchers with resilience skills they will need to have long, healthy careers as she mentors the next generation of 9-1-1 leaders utilizing peer support, EAP engagement, and the telecommunicators’ loved ones to create a support system for them.